Eels

Having racked up over 800 plays by Eels over the last twelve months, I think it’s fair to say I’ve become a big fan.

It’s taken me a while to get there. Somewhere in my crazy head I had lumped the bands Sparklehorse and Eels together (both of them being outlets for American solo male singer-songwriters who make music that, in E’s words, “might make people get up to check and see if something was wrong with their stereo”) – and for some weird sub-conscious reason I thought I had to choose one over the other, and for years chose only Sparklehorse.

It was reading Eels’ Mark Oliver Everett’s ‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’ that finally got me listening to them. It’s an amazing book which isn’t just for music fans; in it he talks about the death of his father, the suicide of his sister, the long battle his mother had with cancer, and of how he coped with all this tragedy – with music being the main force that kept him alive.

Here’s two of my favourite bits from the the book:

“When you’re a kid and you’re watching your favourite band on TV, it just looks fun and exciting. But it turns out that, in reality, to do it, and to try to do it well – really caring about how it turns out – is extremely hard work and a very stressful lifestyle. It’s not for anyone who isn’t totally devoted to the mission and willing to give up any kind of real life. Because no one will ever care about your stuff as much as you and there will be daily battles to fight – hard, lonely battles. And they never seem to stop for me.”

“That’s the thing about fans. If they like one thing you do, and you don’t do the same thing again, they can feel let down. I never understood that way of thinking, so it means nothing to me, sorry. Why on earth would you want everything to be the same all the time? You can go back and listen to ‘Daisies of the Galaxy’ anytime you want to. I don’t need to do it again. That said, I don’t set out to dazzle the world with my ‘versatility’. I just have some things in me that need to come out. If you only like one kind of music, sorry again, but life’s too short. Every record I’ve ever put out has been met with some torrent of angry fan mail because it wasn’t what they expected. If you want what you expect, why not make your own album then? I’m just trying to make mine and it’s probably not what you’re expecting. I’m glad we had this little talk.”

And here’s the song by Eels I’m relating to most at the moment: